Serena Joy

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The Commander:

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Nick:

We can think of Nick’s character as a mirror in which we watch Offred’s image begin to change. His relationship with Offred is, like the other characters, played from her first-person perspective and it is a marker of her own progress of sorts. The narrative reveals her move away from the pain of her remembered past into a new present which is dominated by the presence of her lover: ‘The fact is that I no longer want to leave’ (p. 283). 

A trusted, over-confident chauffeur for the Commander, he bears messages that summon Offred to the office and supplies black market cigarettes to Serena Joy. When Offred first enters the Commander's household, she notices Nick, who is polishing the staff car; soon afterward, he regularly stares at her, shows off his muscles, whistles, and displays an insouciant cockiness that belies his later importance in her life. As Offred's lover, Nick listens dispassionately to her recital of past history and emotional outpourings during their fervid lovernaking. On the day that Serena confronts Offred with evidence of adultery and calls her a slut, Nick, purportedly an operative for the Eyes and double agent for Mayday, sets up a phony arrest and has her spirited away in an Eyes van, possibly to an Underground Fernaleroad way station in Bangor, Maine.